When voters have no say: Prison warden should have to apply for job

Voters elected incumbent Republican Donna Asure in 2006 to a third term as Monroe County Commissioner. But in recent months Asure has been spending most of her time at the county Correctional Facility in Snydersville. The prison board — of which Asure is a member — advertised the warden position in trade publications last spring and interviewed candidates in June, but didn't hire anyone.

Voters elected incumbent Republican Donna Asure in 2006 to a third term as Monroe County Commissioner. But in recent months Asure has been spending most of her time at the county Correctional Facility in Snydersville. The prison board — of which Asure is a member — advertised the warden position in trade publications last spring and interviewed candidates in June, but didn't hire anyone. Now, Asure says, the prison board has stopped advertising for a permanent warden and she has taken over the reins of the jail.

The Correctional Facility has had a troubled history in recent years. There was a sex scandal in 2006, after which five corrections officers were eventually convicted or pleaded guilty to engaging in sex acts with inmates. Then the warden, a 31-year prison employee who had worked his way up the ladder, resigned in May 2007. An interim warden served until the county hired a new warden in January 2008. That warden resigned after seven months on the job.

Her successor and a captain were suspended earlier this year after other jail employees heard the captain make a disparaging remark to the warden about another C.O. and the warden did nothing. The two resigned in March. A deputy warden handed over his duties to Asure in May and she has been there ever since. Trouble continues: Police recently charged a jail C.O. with shooting to death his girlfriend and infant son.

Asure says she wants "to get things done," including improving the jail's camera surveillance system, expanding the prison phone-monitoring system, installing a new roof and heating and air-conditioning system. That's commendable, but she's still on the payroll as a commissioner. Asure is collecting her $65,000-a-year commissioner's salary, not the $68,000 a year the two previous wardens were being paid.

Asure has no background in corrections other than service as a commissioner. But that doesn't necessarily disqualify her. After all, longtime MCCF warden Bryan Hill was a car salesman before landing the jail job in the 1980s. He served for 18 years, including a stint as head of the American Jail Association. Hill retired in 2000 to take an administrative position with the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.

The thing is, running the jail is not what the voters "hired" Donna Asure to do. She's supposed to be serving as a commissioner. Maybe she's just viewing this as a temporary opportunity. But if she wants to become warden, Commissioner Asure should submit an application like everybody else.